Rosa Foster sat down at the kitchen table with a plate of fried chicken and a salad. Before taking a bite of food, she bowed her head and prompted her grandchildren to say the blessing.
Did your child walk and talk early? Does she have a brain like a sponge? Scribble magnificently? Love learning? Ask questions that leave you marveling (and scrambling to Google an answer)?
It took Kelsey Galer four weeks at a weight-loss camp to lose 9 pounds. It took her dad just three days to start acting like a "dork."
A week before the start of the new school year, principal Denise Magee roamed the hallways of Campbell Middle School in Smyrna, Georgia, preparing for battle.
As a good postfeminist-era mom, I certainly didn't push my son toward trucks and my daughter toward tutus.
Given that Matthew McConaughey's personal motto is "just keep living," perhaps it's no surprise that he says the birth of his 1-month-old son Levi Alves McConaughey has not totally stopped the way he does that.
Thanks to the flu, a broken ankle, a staph infection, and bronchitis, plus several school cancellations, my three children were at home -- hurting, vomiting, coughing, or tracking muddy water into our house -- all but seven days last February. (Shall I pause to let the horror of that number sink in? All but seven.) I'm normally an efficient, organized person who thrives on plans and checklists, but by the end of that month, I'd accomplished almost nothing beyond reading aloud the entire fifth book of Harry Potter. I felt so anxious that I was on the verge of hyperventilation.
You may think your home is safe, but there may be toxins in your water, linens, and even your deck. There are several simple steps you can take to make your kitchen, living spaces, playroom, and backyard healthier for you and your family. Here's what to do:
Being a mom is a tough job, but you don't have to feel exhausted all the time. Here are some of the reasons you might feel tired, and what you can do about them.
Eve Pidgeon watched the large group of kids, many of them laughing and chatting excitedly as they boarded a bus for summer sleepaway camp last summer.
Rosa Foster sat down at the kitchen table with a plate of fried chicken and a salad. Before taking a bite of food, she bowed her head and prompted her grandchildren to say the blessing.
Did your child walk and talk early? Does she have a brain like a sponge? Scribble magnificently? Love learning? Ask questions that leave you marveling (and scrambling to Google an answer)?
It took Kelsey Galer four weeks at a weight-loss camp to lose 9 pounds. It took her dad just three days to start acting like a "dork."
A week before the start of the new school year, principal Denise Magee roamed the hallways of Campbell Middle School in Smyrna, Georgia, preparing for battle.
As a good postfeminist-era mom, I certainly didn't push my son toward trucks and my daughter toward tutus.
Given that Matthew McConaughey's personal motto is "just keep living," perhaps it's no surprise that he says the birth of his 1-month-old son Levi Alves McConaughey has not totally stopped the way he does that.
Thanks to the flu, a broken ankle, a staph infection, and bronchitis, plus several school cancellations, my three children were at home -- hurting, vomiting, coughing, or tracking muddy water into our house -- all but seven days last February. (Shall I pause to let the horror of that number sink in? All but seven.) I'm normally an efficient, organized person who thrives on plans and checklists, but by the end of that month, I'd accomplished almost nothing beyond reading aloud the entire fifth book of Harry Potter. I felt so anxious that I was on the verge of hyperventilation.
You may think your home is safe, but there may be toxins in your water, linens, and even your deck. There are several simple steps you can take to make your kitchen, living spaces, playroom, and backyard healthier for you and your family. Here's what to do:
Being a mom is a tough job, but you don't have to feel exhausted all the time. Here are some of the reasons you might feel tired, and what you can do about them.
Eve Pidgeon watched the large group of kids, many of them laughing and chatting excitedly as they boarded a bus for summer sleepaway camp last summer.
Double latte in the morning, soda with lunch, energy drink at midday. Sound familiar?
I often say that I spend more time and energy on my one boy than on my three girls. Other mothers of boys are quick to say the same. Forget that old poem about snips and snails and puppy dog tails, says Sharon O'Donnell, a mom of three boys and the author of "House of Testosterone." "Somehow it's been changed to boys being made of 'fights, farts, and video games,' and sometimes I'm not sure how much more I can take!"
Five years ago, Kathye Petters-Armitage's first child received the exact vaccinations on the exact schedule recommended by her pediatrician.
The percentage of underweight babies born in the U.S. has increased to its highest rate in 40 years, according to a new report that also documents a recent rise in the number of children living in poverty.
School's out and the kids are playing outside. How much do you have to worry about them getting sick? Here are some concerns you may have, and some you may not know about.
If you've got five minutes, you have enough time to try one of these stress busters. What are you waiting for? Try one now!
Babies are adorable! There's nothing like the love surge of a full-body hug or the amazed pride you feel when your toddler takes his first steps!
Ask a mom if she's happier now that she has a child, and she'll usually say yes. But psychologists who study happiness often report a different picture. Being the mom of a young child (especially one under 3) is rewarding, but also a real strain on your mood.
Raising kids, I used to think, how hard could it be? Anything you can carry around in a car seat can't be all that big a deal, right?
Question: I've always been on the Pill, but now I'm breastfeeding. That means I can't go back on it, right?
Three months before she gave birth last year, Diana Simpson, a dental hygienist in Davison, Michigan, started coughing uncontrollably. The pain in her throat and chest was unbearable.
More than three out of four new moms now breast-feed their infants, the highest rate in the U.S. in at least 20 years, according to a a government report released Wednesday.
When Andrea Buie-Branam brought her asthmatic baby to the nearest emergency room, she thought she was doing the right thing. But once she got there, she began to suspect she wasn't in the right place.
I had big plans for my first maternity leave, the nine blessedly unencumbered months I'd spend away from my teaching job. First, of course, I intended to love, care for, and play with my baby. But no way was I going to become one of those goo-goo-ga-ga new mothers who can't think of anything but their child. While my son napped -- I was counting on long naps -- I'd rent films and watch the news. Most of all, I would read books: glorious novels, gorgeous poetry collections, spellbinding biographies.
They might be the apple of your eye, but chances are, they're the reason the apple pie is sticking to your thighs! That's right, our kids are making us fatter. Well, actually, less fit. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh studied 525 adults and found that although marriage has almost no effect on how much time men or women exercised, having children does.
Eliot Peitso of Charlestown, Massachusetts, was desperate to get outside. Or so he said. "Out! Out!" he yelled. His mom, Jennifer Johnson, rushed to get ready. Diaper bag packed, house keys located, toys and snacks stuffed into the stroller, she opened the door and had just stepped out when, suddenly, 20-month-old Eliot burst into tears and demanded to stay inside. Did he change his mind? Not exactly. Crossing the threshold again, Eliot wailed louder: "Out! Out!"
There are a lot of Marys in Mary Jane McGill's extended family, so each one gets a special name. Mary who lives in Roslindale, Massachusetts, is "Mary Rozy." Mary from Everett, Massachusetts, is called "Mary Everett." And McGill? She's "Mary Google."
It all started with the flush of an automatic toilet. The terrifying sound marked the beginning of a two-year nightmare for Sarah Teres as she desperately tried to potty train her daughter Molly.
At some point during last month's well-baby checkup for her son Isaac, Kamila McGinnis stopped listening to her pediatrician.
There are few issues that preoccupy new parents more than this: Is my baby growing normally? When the percentiles seem off-kilter, we worry -- but experts say there's rarely reason for concern.
I'm the mother of two daughters, a teen and a tween. So every day, I tiptoe through hormonally laced minefields hoping to avoid emotional carnage in response to any of my random comments or actions.
When her father was dying of cancer, Kathy Hill Kremer leaned hard on her friends: "They brought me food when I forgot to eat, and wine when I just couldn't take it anymore. They drove my mom back and forth to the hospital. Best of all, they invited my daughter Aubrey for playdates so she could escape all the sadness. That meant I could focus on helping my parents, and my husband could concentrate on being there for me," says the Tennessee mom.
For parents with three small kids -- Michael is 4, Jack's 3, and Anthony is 2 -- Lisa and Mike Spellman are surprisingly calm people. From the jumble of bright plastic toys, to the family pictures on every table, to the five baby gates in the downstairs alone, it's obvious that they've happily surrendered to parenthood. Lisa (a former attorney, now an at-home mom) and Mike (a neuroradiologist) take it all in stride, even when the volume in their Nashville house approaches deafening.
Competition is tougher than ever this year to get into the freshman class at Georgia Tech in Atlanta. The admissions office received close to 10,000 applications for just 2,400 slots.
It was shortly before midnight, and Dr. Patricia Harris was getting ready for bed. The phone rang. On the other end of the line was a woman about to break a promise.
The world is full of advice for married couples, newlyweds or not -- some of it commonsensical, most of it well-intentioned, and much of it wrong. In the 14 years we've been married, my husband and I have broken all the rules at least once -- and when I copped to friends, most of them gleefully admitted they'd done the same.
What's it really take to parent a preschooler? It's pretty simple, once you realize what kids this age can and can't do (and what sets them off and what keeps them happy!). Here are seven qualities that make it much easier to manage all that, and why they're so crucial when you've got an independent-minded, boundary-testing picky eater on your hands.
As she picks him up, he's flooded with her scent and a dim memory of his other world -- the place where his body floated and he first recognized the scent that's hers alone. But now, two weeks after birth, he's in a vast, dry place called home. She brings him close to nurse and he roots with his mouth, guided in part by the smell of colostrum and the smell from the scent glands on her nipples. Her scent links him to everything he craves: food, warmth, touch. He latches on and the sweetness of the liquid is vaguely reminiscent of the smell and taste of amniotic fluid -- both are affected by his mother's diet. Already, sweet is his favorite taste.
Amy Granelli started her holiday shopping weeks ago. As she aimlessly pushed her cart through towering aisles of toys she still found herself overwhelmed by choices.
College senior Lisa Hamlett is looking forward to going home to Crossville, Tennessee, on Wednesday, but she hasn't always been so enthusiastic about spending Thanksgiving vacation with her parents.
One day in the pediatrician's office, Mia Redrick put her foot down.
Leah McCammon was just five days short of her first birthday when she was severely burned in her grandmother's bathtub. "My mother stepped out for just 30 seconds to get my other daughter from the living room," recalls Leah's mom, Shelly McCammon, an Atlanta, Georgia, interior designer. "In that time, Leah pulled herself up by grabbing the faucet and turned it on, sending 128-degree water splashing down." Three days later, Leah died.
It's hard to believe now, but once upon a time, Michelle Duggar was a new mom. Now the Arkansas mother is famous for having 17 children, but she can still remember how her first child had a huge belly button when he was born 19 years ago.
When you take your bundle of joy home from the hospital, it's inevitable you won't do everything right. We asked pediatricians for the five most common mistakes parents make with their newborns.
On the popular parenting Web site urbanbaby.com, a writer asks whether it's OK to give an 18-month-old "a tiny bit of Robitussin" for her "cold/cough and fever."
"I picked up the kids from daycare all week; you bathed the dog."
Greta Anne Rowe is like a little kid when it comes to Halloween. During a recent outing at a Target store near her suburban Atlanta, Georgia, home, the 37-year-old seemed to spare no expense as she filled her shopping cart with plastic pumpkins, flickering ghost-shaped flashlights and a CD with spooky music.
1. Be artful. Stock your child's coloring table with used printer paper and empty cereal boxes. He can draw on the unprinted sides of the paper, and the insides of cereal boxes are great for finger painting. Bonus points for turning his artwork into wrapping paper.
Julia has never been especially fearful, so I was caught off guard when just before her fifth birthday she became terrified of being poisoned. She cried after she accidentally swallowed a crayon shaving. Even the beloved cherry-red lipsticks that were her favorite part of dress-up now seemed fraught with danger. "Mommy! By mistake lipstick got on my tongue!" she yelled, running into my room one day. "Am I going to die?"
The question's been around forever -- and so have the myths surrounding it.
For the first time in decades, cavities in kids are on the rise. As many as 28 percent of children ages 2 to 5 have cavities in their baby teeth. What can you do to keep your child's teeth healthy? Answers to your most pressing dental questions, for babies on up:
Wearing his new backpack and school uniform, 5-year-old Sebastian Grau looked pretty confident walking down the hallway of Austin Elementary in Dunwoody, Georgia, on his first day of kindergarten. But his parents tell a different story.
Toy recalls are no longer relegated to discount bins and no-name brands. The recent rash of toy recalls have included some A-list celebrities of the children's toy world, including Dora the Explorer, Thomas the Tank Engine, Polly Pocket and Barbie. In the last two weeks alone, Mattel has recalled over 100 types of toys totaling 10 million units.
I'm constantly flummoxed by the off-the-wall questions I get from my kids. Like the time my older daughter, then 5, asked me why her stuffed-pig lovey doesn't have a penis. He's a boy, isn't he? My profound lack of adequate answers was never more clearly on display.
From her earliest breaths, my daughter Alexis was a force to be reckoned with. As an infant, she shooed away the cereal spoon; as a toddler, she rebounded from her bed all night long. When she was in preschool, her teachers would tell us that her strong will made her a natural leader.
It's called the "word spurt," that magical time when a toddler's vocabulary explodes, seemingly overnight.
Caring for a 5-month-old son and a nearly 4-year-old daughter seems like a full-time job for Amy Little, but the Dunwoody, Georgia, mother also works 40 hours a week in sales at AT&T.
My first sitter, Maggie, spoiled me forever. We met, I adored her, she adored the baby, I hired her, and a love affair began. I left for work on her first day without a second thought -- really! I had no urge to run back and ask her 12 more questions about her experience, her references, her opinion on daytime TV or high-fructose corn syrup.
For parents, sending kids off to summer camp is an emotional balancing act: There's the prospect of fresh air and friendships, competition and camaraderie, but there's also the worry of insect bites, injuries and allergies.
Myth No. 1: A suntan's fine, as long as you don't burn.
